Favorite Song Series - Deep Purple Mistreated

The song Mistreated off the Deep Purple album Burn was one of the very first songs I fell in love with. Deep Purple was maybe my first favorite band growing up in the 1970's. The first recorded music album I bought was a cassette of the Machine Head album. Burn was their next album, but also the first where David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes had joined, replacing Roger Glover and Ian Gillian. The song Mistreated was written by original group member and defacto leader of Deep Purple, Ritchie Blackmore and new member David Coverdale.

Mistreated by Deep Purple:

This should have clued me into the fact that I really liked blues and blues rock better than straight ahead rock, as this was clearly a very bluesy song. But of course, who knew the difference back in the 1970s, am I right. I did lean toward the longer slower songs in most cases.

For those who don't know, Ritchie Blackmore eventually left Deep Purple after their next album Stormbringer (another of my favorite DP albums) and went on to form the band Rainbow with Ronny James Dio. So Mistreated became a big part of their live act as you can see in the video below.

Mistreated by Rainbow, live 1976:

David Coverdale left Deep Purple after they broke up in 1976 after the Come Taste the Band album, forming a group called Whitesnake (yes, Whitesnake was formed in 1976 not 1986 when they rocketed to stardom with a new lineup and a more 1980s rock sound). The original Whitesnake band had two guitarists, Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden and included Jon Lord, organist from Deep Purple as well as Neil Murray on bass and Ian Paice on drums (also a Deep Purple Alum). And of course, they also covered Mistreated live since David Coverdale was one of the writers.

Whitesnake Live 1983 - Mistreated

Glenn Hughes also made this song a staple of his live shows, playing with a variety of solo or group projects, including Black Country Communion with Joe Bonamassa, current blues great.

Glenn Hughes with Black Country Communion - Live 2010: Mistreated

This song has been covered by a large number of other groups, Metallica, Yngwie Malmsteen, Physis, even in the animated movie "Strange Magic". Just an awesome blues song created by one of the all-time rock bands maybe better know for the song "Smoke on the Water" but still this is easily my favorite Deep Purple song. Hope you enjoy listening to the various versions by original band and the off-shoots of Deep Purple. Rock on!